The invention relates to miter saws, and in particular to a slide compound miter saw. It is commonly known in the art to include in a slide compound miter saw a base having a pedestal and a turntable mounted on the pedestal for pivotal movement about a vertical axis. The pedestal and turntable each include smooth upper surfaces that combine to form a continuous work piece support surface for supporting the work piece during cutting thereof. An elongated, vertical support fence is mounted on the support surface to provide additional support to the work piece. Typically, the turntable is adjustable to a plurality of predetermined positions that allow for relatively precise cutting at predetermined miter angles relative to the work piece support fence.
It is also known in the art to include a cutting unit mounted on the base and having a saw arm and a mounting arrangement for mounting the saw arm to the base to allow pivotal movement of the cutting unit about a first horizontal axis between a cutting position and a non-cutting position and about a second horizontal bevel angle axis to allow adjustment of the bevel angle of the saw unit so that compound cutting of the work piece can be achieved. The mounting arrangement of the slide compound miter saw typically allows sliding movement of the saw unit in the forward and rearward directions in order to accommodate or allow cutting of larger work pieces.
As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,825, one known slide compound miter saw includes a base having a turntable and a support member connected to the turntable. A pair of support rods are slidably mounted to the upper end of the support member and are fixed to the saw unit to allow the saw unit to slide relative to the work piece support surface.
Most miter saws also include a fixed or upper blade guard and a retractable lower blade guard. It is known in the art to include a mechanism that causes pivotal movement of the lower blade guard from a surround position to a non-surround position when the saw unit is lowered from a non-cutting position to a cutting position.